Tag: Code Warriors

The final day of Modem started off on a busy note for me, as I came running in from an Exun prelim (Exun deserves its own post, so read that later). To greet me (rather me and my quiz partner Prannoy) where Bombardo and rest of the troop.

The quiz started off really late. Our major contenders on stage Mothers International school and DPS Mathura Road, out of the 6 teams that had qualified. The others were Monfort, Apeejay (NOIDA) and Mount Carmel. The first direct was an easy one for me, and gave us a crucial boost as I’d doubled (double is like is a question is for 10 marks with no negatives and you double, then if you get it right +20 otherwise -10). In the same round though, MIS took a big lead on passed ones. Over the next few rounds, their lead increased while we tried to play catch up (at one point, we were 5th!). Disappointing was that our hardware guy Prannoy missed a few sitters.

Then came a round where everyone used up their challenge card, except us (a challenge is when you are asked a question and you ‘challenge’ another team to answer it, if they get it right, +40 otherwise -10 to that team). That was a round which saw a reduction in scores, but MIS still retained the lead. Our strategy in not using the challenge card when everyone else had was to save it for the last round, and use it to our advantage in final position. This was also the round where we messed up big time, where Prannoy, thinking he’d been challenged a second time, gave an answer out-of-turn, and it was picked up by another team.

With a bleak scenario, then came the savior question – on the origin of the Apache server. I gave a pretty spirited answer, arms flailing and we got it. It was a double, so it took us closer to the lead. Followed by a few passes, and we were back in business.

The last round was a rapid fire round, and I was disgusted that the fools conducting it had not told us the challenge card could not be used in that round. Anyway, the round was good, and in the end we ended up a close third, with MIS first and DPS MR second.

Analysing our performance, I’d say never to let Prannoy facing away, because he keeps thinking on his, and then gives a ‘mujhe bolne nahi diya’ after I give an answer. 😉

The other events like PodRadio didn’t go well. What disappointed the CW team the most was Abhimanyu’s loss in the gaming event (on an Xbox!). I knew Modem was going out of our hands, so when there was a clash with Exun we sent our junior team there. One guy did come back for the hardware event with Prannoy, but we didn’t get a position in that.

Overall, at Modem 2006 we came third, with Apeejay coming first and MIS second. We could have done better, if we had more podium finishes in other events too.

What made us angry though was the fact that we did not get any prizes for the events that we DID win. We’d gone in to a lot of trouble to go for Modem despite having Exun, that too because Modem President Aman Gupta had stated “…you know our prizes…” and they’ve a history of giving away good prizes. Not this year. Maybe the sponsors, Microsoft were stingy this year.

On a lighter note, the event was a nice one. We were shown the entries of PodRadio (a podcasting event), Movie Making and DJ Mix. Must applaud DPS MR for a tremendously funny podcast (and the only ones to understand the meaning of podcasting correctly). Movie clips were not that good, although the ones who came second had done well. DPS MR again played the goofy card by making a movie WHOLLY consisting of kissing scenes from ‘Friends’. The remixes from the DJ event were pathetic though, given they got a library of 180 songs to choose from for a five minute clip.

Microsoft showed us why it makes crappy software, aptly demonstrated by its head in India who came during the prize distribution ceremony. He had no idea what features his own software had, neither did his engineers, and he even accepted his daughter had found ‘new’ features of which apparently his staff had no clue. Shows why not to trust Microsoft. Also, he was under the illusion that Microsoft applications were used in the events, when actually most of them were done on open-source ones.

My pal Prannoy though was greatly disappointed about this being his last Modem (hopefully), since he won’t get to see [quote] ‘that ultra-hot and cute teacher’ [unquote] of Modern anymore. He took a detour while coming down from stage after getting his prize to speak to her too. So sad Prannoy… 😉

Modem 2006 started off at Modern School, Vasant Vihar today, with a really bald guy from Evil Microsoft (who also happen to be the sponsors, damn!) giving a really boring speech (typical Microsoft management). Felt like doing some ‘Linux Rules’ sloganeering, but then, dropped the idea.

Although I’ve gone to the school before, I haven’t commented on it yet, so here goes. Nice building with an old-world sort of look, and intriguing to find quite a few hot girls (ahem) roaming around all the time (as in, who attends the classes then?). Embarrassing toilets with no dividers, and a psychic water dispenser system that activated itself whenever I stood in front of it (without any IR detectors, that too). Cozy auditorium, and their computer labs seemed to be good.

My first event was the Mod Challenge Quiz, with Prannoy as my teammate, in which we had 20 questions. Pretty easy, although we did make a silly mistake or two, and could have done better. Anyway, we rocked in the prelims of the quiz, and qualified for the finals, which will be held tomorrow.

After a bit of a break, where I’d my refreshments gobbled up by piranha fishes roaming around (rather, our gamer Bombardo), and funny canteen which doesn’t sell anything to outsiders. Talk about xenophobia! Lemme see how THEY go back with full stomachs when they come for Code Wars.

I had the Group Discussion event then, with Raj on team, and we were in the second batch for the prelims. But due to a shortage of teams, the GD prelims were reconducted with all participating teams present on the topic ‘BPO, KPO…What next?’. I had the unfortunate task of kickstarting the discussion, but we did well together. Participating teams were really good, and we had an engaging discussion on the topic. We made it to the top four teams that made it to the GD finals.

After a buffet lunch (where Bombardo cooked up a food shortage crisis), I had the GD finals, held on stage, (I really love staring into a glaring spotlight) with the topic this time as ‘Information Technology – India is in boom, but what about the challenge from the East?’. The other teams were all jingoistic in their support for India as an IT superpower, but our team was pretty clear that we would oppose it and say that India has not YET reached the level that China has, and we still have some way to go. Gave convincing points from our side, but we still came second, just ONE point behind the winners (the judge said that) DPS Rohini. I guess I was a bit arrogant or irritating on stage, sort of cross questioning (which wasn’t allowed) and jumping into conversations. Or maybe it’s a habit I haven’t shaken off from quizzing, where I HAVE TO be the fastest one to buzz in, and disputes with quizmasters on stage is as common as snow in Alaska, so maybe that’s where I get my butting in and cross questioning talent from.

Our school also came third in the Crossword (in which I couldn’t participate, since it was a junior event). Looking forward to finals tomorrow, let’s see what happens…